A Horse With No Name

The Volt won't get here a day too soon. Sadly, I think my days driving my Safari van are numbered. Chris

Exactly. Why in India do families still have 9 children? Chris

Actually auto's use something like 14% of the energy we use, so to be fair here are my real world suggestions, of which I think we can't do without... 1. Shut the damned lights off in commercial buildings wwhen no one is there. Cities are full of buildings where there are tons of large buildings burning lights that don't need burned. There are intelligent building energy management systems in use now that can acomplish this painlessly. 2. A real world rail system, including a passenger system that doesn't go from nowhere to nowhere in the middle of the night. 3. Cut down on the size of our retail stores. Why do we need nine million varieties of dogfood, six million varieties of breakfast cereal, a billion kinds of soda, etc? Or why do we need a ton of clothing stores at the mall? This is all space that is heated and cooled at great expense. Smaller stores and more online buying would mean more money available and more choices for those who like nice clothes, not less. 4. Cut down on the amount of busieness travel. The airline industry uses enormous amounts of energy. 5. Stop importing so much stuff. Moving all this stuff (mostly junk) from east asia to the west coast and then across America uses huge amounts of energy. We would do better to build things locally. 6. Cut down on school consolidation. More smaller schools. We wate huge amounts of time busing kids long distances, and they are in much less a state to learn after an hour bus ride to school. Just a few thoughts, there are millions of ways more to save energy that don't involve automobiles as a main culprit. Chris

This is one reason why I'd like their to be an alternative to petroleum to power our cars. Part of me would really like to drive a Tahoe daily. Although it would be interesting to see a Tahoe/Escalade collision. Chris

Actually I hate stereotypes but...as a strait guy I've found that a lot of the most creative, enteresting, informed, whatever people that love cars happen to be gay. I am even thinking about joining the local Lamda car club. They have some great people involved...and like the Local Miata club, they seem to know a lot of good local places to get together for a good meal for meetings, etc. Seriously, thanks for sharing this with me. Although my wife and three daughters will want to know why I am now surifing Gaywheels.com on the internet. Chris

Cobalts are usually about as reliable as gravity... Chris

One word-Manual. This is one reason why I don't buy Automatic trans vehicles. Yes, I know most of them (99.7%) are reliable, but the same damned thing happened to me driving an Econoline at work. Shifted from 3rd to first just as we were crossing a major interesection with some cross traffic. 32k should still be under warrenty. Back in the Day the trans was rebuilt in my Safari under warranty for just such behavior. Chevrolet dealership held all of the parts and it took a little bit of fighting, but in the und I got an $1800 covered with no out of pocket. Chris

Also, Dodgefan I am as mystified as you are about old Cadillacs being junked. I've seen a lot of decent Cadillacs scraped for no reason and I just don't understand it.

Timing chains will streatch and go bad with time. Chris

Exactly. Talked to a guy today who is getting rid of a 2002 Cavalier to get a 92 Accord with twice the miles because "Hondas are better cars and more reliable." He's had zero problems with the Cavalier. Chris

I miss high school. There was a Cutlass just like that every day in the school lot with a 455. Chris

Audi is under rated. Thinking I might eventually buy a used TT myself, glad things are working out for you. Kind of nice having two different cars to drive, isn't it? Chris

Cool! Chris

When a Chinese made Demon starts winning in the SCCA against the Solstice it will be a disgrace to everyone...assuming Chrysler still builds it. Chris

My old neighbor had a Dale Ernhardt special edition Monte Carlo with a bunch of Jeff Gordon Stickers and a big #24 on it. Suprised that car didn't get keyed from a loyal Ernhardt fan. Most of the Nascar fans around here seem to still buy domestic BTW. Chris

...and the nicest thing about the car IMHO is that the two door (excuse me, three door) is really HOT in the styling department. Up close that thing is really a looker for a modern car. Chris

Say what you will about Honda, those boys build some fuel efficient cars. Would love to see the Astra do better, but it is a cool small car. I drove one and road noise was not an issue at all, but the car I drove didn't have the sunroof. Noise seems to be more of an issue with sunroof cars, IMHO. Manual trans in the car I drove was really slick, almost like a Miata or a Honda S2000. I wonder if it varies from car to car? Chris

Actually I think GM sold the Doraville plant where the Uplander was made. My understanding is that they still hold plenty of real estate in Flint, though... Chris

Ottawa and Washington have this in common-they are both about 15 square miles surrounded by reality... Chris

Congrats on the car! I may be buying one in a few months also. Good to know you didn't buy the slushbox! Chris

Would be interesting to see what could be done with a refreshed Trailblazer. Chris

Looks good in both the silver and the blue. Did you get a manual or an auto? Chris

...o.k., so what do you replace the Colorado with? I love it, but it seems to be too big to be a small truck and too small to do the work of a full size. Also, does Chevrolet really need two small cars? Why? My mother has an Aveo and it is not THAT much more fuel efficient than a Cobalt, and the out the door price is not that different. Would love to know what you are thinking. Chris

My take- Solstice-refresh with a better top and a real trunk. Keep the SCCA race winning suspension, the good looks, and the ecotech 4. Put a little more hip and shoulder room in the car-this is another area an already great car could be improved. Vibe-keep it... G-5-build a small car on the same chasis as the redesigned Chevy platform I talked about in the Chevrolet thread. G-8-keep- Grand prix is already gone or irrelevant, or both. Pontiac needs to develop another sexy midsized car other than the G6, perhaps a really good, slightly smaller g6 replacement for about 2011. Give this car a hybrid option and skip the convertible and the goofy GXP street edition, build instead a reallly sexy 2 door and really comfortable 4 door version of the car. Test the 4 door version with average sized Americans and make sure they fit... Chris

Keep- Full sized vans and p/u trucks-we in the trdes need them. Put a smaller diesel in the half ton p/u and van. Corvette-development work is already done and it's a great halo car. Build a few mid engene concepts and a few wild show cars to keep the public guessing. Malibu-what else can be done or said? Next version should have a sporty two door model, however. Update-redesign- ...Aveo and Cobalt into one really good small car, similar to Astra. Start with a fresh sheet of paper, and go all new from the ground up. Build a hybrid and diesel version, as well as a sport compact version. Impala-perhaps an RWD car on the Pontiac G8 Platform. Don't they already sell such a vehicle in Saudi and so forth? Make it a limited production car. Plan on selling about 35,000 a year. Should be a niche vehicle. There are lots of older people with money, as about 80% of the wealth in the US and Canada is with people over 50. These are people who remember RWD sedans with power.Houston, you've found your market. Trailbalzer, Equinox, HHR, et all-consolidate into one good economical smaller SUV type vehicle, smaller than current CRV/RAV-4-etc. Lots of females seem to like vehicles like these, the Hyndai santa fe, etc. Work on making this vehicle fuel efficient, because Carbiz is right, with the weakness of the Dollar $5 gas is gonna be a reality and people are still going to want to buy SUV's. Colorado-Discontinue Chris